One head of cabbage can now cost over 11,000 won ($10), more than pork and up from 2,000-3,000 won a year ago (see chart). Kimchi is now being dubbed keum-chi, the first syllable being Korean for gold.

The triggers seems to be the classics - poor harvest, perhaps exacerbated by hoarding - and I think it would be a bridge too far to connect this definitively to broader trends of global food price inflation, climate change, etc. But it is becoming a local political issue:

President Lee Myung-bak says he will be getting his personal stash from Western producers, earning him comparisons to Marie-Antoinette from South Korea’s numerous and critical bloggers.

... and I think it is worthwhile to keep track of these sorts of things.

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